(KMZA)--After a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pony Express re-ride returns June 16-26..

Personal mail and commemorative letters will be carried by rider and horse relays nearly 2,000 miles from Sacramento, California to St. Joseph, Missouri.

The first rider will leave on Wednesday ( June 16)  from Sacramento, with the last rider arriving in St. Joseph on June 26. The route will be over the Pony Express National Historic Trail.

It is a 10-day, 24 hour a day event honoring the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company founded by a Missouri freighting company. It carried letters and telegrams from April 1860 to November 1861.

600 riders will take part in the re-ride, riding in relays of one to five miles.